Beating and refining engine.



E. P. BUTTS.

BEATING AND REFINING ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 21, I913.

Patented Dec. 29. 1914.

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IVITNESSES: ZZQZZZQ? M6 EDWARD P. BUTTS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

BEATING AND REFINING ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 29, 1914.

Application filed January 21, 1913. Serial No. 743,272.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD P. BU'rrs, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Beating and Refinin Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to paper making and has special reference to beating and refining engines of that type known in the trade as Jordan engines,,the object of the invention being to provide an improved engine of this type so constructed and arranged as to do away with the heavy endthrust to which the shaft of such engines is subjected when the machine is in operation, which thrust is due to the conical shape of the principal parts of the machine.

A second and very important object of the invention lies in the combination of two of these engines in such operative relation, one to the other, as will eliminate the endthrust on the shaft as described above, and in making the cone of one 'of the engines of greater area than the other, the cones of the two engines being fixed to the same shaft, the latter. being permitted to move endwise within narrow llmits, and the conical casings of the cones being adjustable in the direction of their axes, the two casings.

being so provided with conduits in this particular combination that pulp fed into one enginewillpass from the outlet end thereof to the inlet end of the other and through the latter. "By means of this construction and arrangement of the two engine units, a setting or adjustment is made possible (and this isa feature which applicant considers new in this art) whereby difierent counter-acting pressuresin the casings of always present between the-surface of the the two engines are made available, which, acting on the cones of different areas, will effect the endwise positioning of the shaft and cones automatically, to the end that the setting or adjustment of one cone relative to its casing will "be closer than the setting of the other cone,-+the shaft floating as it may be termed, but maintained by the counter-acting pressures in a substantially fixed plane of rotation. The reason why the cone having the greatera'rea' can not move the smaller cone far enough to cause the knives thereon to comeinto contact with the knives of the casing is that a cushion of pulp is supply-pipe, and, as the smaller cone is brought into nearer relation to its casing,

this cushion of pulp is compacted, thus u timately establishing a pressure which counter-balances the opposing pressure of the cone having the greater area. Furthermore, simultaneously with the increase of resistance to compression of the pulp cushion surrounding the smaller cone, the pressure on the pulp oushion surrounding the cone having the larger area decreases, owing to the movement of the latter cone away from its casing. Hence, by a suitable adjustment of the casings of the two cones any desired degree of refining action in the two engines may be attained, but the refining action Wlll be less in the engine having the larger cone, and thus pulp passing from the latter to the other enginewill be subected to tworefining reductions of increasmg fineness, the degree of reduction in the two engines being inversely proportionate to the respective areas of the two cones. That 1s to say, by reason of the fact that one englne has a larger grinding surface, the pressure per unit area will be less on this cylinder than in the smaller engine. In

the present stage of pulp refining, it is desired that the first treatment of pulp shall be less harsh than the second, in order to obtain a better grade of paper, and, for this reason the grinding area of the first engine is made larger than the second engine. It is also clear that by reason of the adjustments of the casings any desired refinement of the product desired can be obtained.

While from the point of view of mechanical efiiciency and convenience, it is desirable that the two casings should be adjusted simultaneously, each may be made independently adjustable, if desired, in the manner well understood in this art.

The invention is clearly shown in the accompanying drawings, in which,-

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine embodying the invention, certain parts being in section. This view shows the two engine units'arranged in their operative relation with means for simultaneous adjustment of the two casings,toward and from each other,-and it shows, further, the type of machine in which the cone of one unit is of greater area than that of the other. Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the machine on line 22, showing the manner of mounting the movable casings of the engines on the base to permit of their adjustment in the direction of the axes of the cones.

Referring to the drawings in detail,-a indicates the base of the machine, provided with suitable standards 6 in which the shaft 0 is mounted, this being the main shaft of the machine and having secured to it the cones d of the two engine units. These cones are, as shown in the drawings, fixed on the shaft 0 in opposed relation, and between the two central standards 6 a driving pulley e is mounted on the shaft, whereby the two cones may be rotated. As usual in this type of refining engine, the cones are inclosed in conical casings f, these casings each being provided with a base or standard g, the lower .portion of which is flanged, as shown in Fig. 3, at h, and fitted into a groove formed in the base, the standards being locked in said groove by means of the overhanging lips k and the bolts m.

An attaching shaft for the two casings f is mounted in the two central standards I), b, to rotate in a fixed plane, the shaft being indicated by 0. The opposite ends of this shaft are provided with right and .lefthand threads, which enter suitably threaded holes of the standard g,lock-nuts 7) being provided to screw up against the standards and lock the shaft thereto. Any suitable means may be provided for rotating the shaft 0, as, for example, the collar g having spanner-holes 1- therein. The cones and casings of the two engine units are built in the manner customary in the ordinary type of refining engine, being provided with the knives s fixed on the cone and the knives t fixed on the interior wall of the casing, the contiguous edges of these knives being parallel. The term knives is used herein in a' generic sense. Any other reducing element may be used in place of the knives. On the opposite ends of the shaft 0 are provided adjusting-nuts 4) which are adapted to screw up against the outer ends of the shaft-bearings in these standards.

As described above, the two cones in the machine shown in Fig. 1, have different areas,-that on the right-hand end of the machine having a greater area than that on the left. The unit on the right of the machine,-that is, the one having the greater area,is the one into which the pulp is first introduced from a suitable V source of supply through the pipe w which,

as is customary, enters the casing near the apex of the cone. From the lower rear end of this casing f, a pipe 0: extends to the casing of the cone on the left-hand end of the machine and enters the latter near the apex of the cone therein, the exit from the casing being by the pipe 3 located at the lower part of the rear end thereof.

As already described, when the pulp enters the casing f of the unit at the left-hand side of the machine, it is under a certain definite head or pressure, and the entire casmg will, as the machine continues to'run, be filled with pulp; that is to say, the annular space between the cone and the casing will be so filled. The pulp, as it works through from the apex toward the base of the cone will be refined, and from this cone passing through the pipe w to the other cone, where the same operation takes place. When the machine is started, the two nuts '1: on opposite ends of the shaft 0 are backed off more or less, thus permittin the shaft 0 to have a certain degree of endwise play within its bearings; consequently, as the two cones are located on the shaft in opposed relation, the endwise thrust of one is counteracted by the like endwise thrust of the other, and as the cone in the right-hand end, as shown in the drawing, has the larger area, the thrust of this cone will be in excess of the counteract ing thrust of the cone in the left-hand end. Therefore, the shaft 0 having more or less endwise movement in its bearings, the excess of thrust developed in the right-hand cone will draw the left-hand cone into its casing as the first-named cone tends to move in the opposite direction. This, however, results in a compression of the body of the pulp lo the one on the left, (in which the separation of the edges of the knives is less than that in the first-named unit,) the pulp receives a greater degree or harder treatment of refining than in said first named unit owinglto us the smaller area of this cone, it being t subjected to two successive refining operations.

To vary the setting of the two cones, the casings f may be adjusted one toward the other, or one away from the other, simultaneously, by means of the screw-shaft 0; or if desired, cones may be provided for adjusting these casings independenly, as stated.

It is quite obvious that if the two cones were fixed on the shaft with their'bases in conti uous relation instead of as shown and described herein, the same counterbalancing of the end thrust would be effected, and in either case the two cones would be, as it were, in opposition, and where this word is used in the claims it isintended to refer to the arrangement of the cones on the shaft, either with their bases or their apices in contiguous relation.

What I claim, is,.

1. An engine of the type described for refining pulp comprising a shaft, two conical members fixed thereon with their apices in contiguous relation one to the other, one of said members having a greater superficial area than the other, an inclosing casing for each of said members, and means to simultaneously adjust said casings toward and from one another, together with pipes to conduct the pulp into and out of said casings.

2. An engine of the type described for refining pulp comprising a shaft, two conical members fixed thereon with their apices in contiguous relation one to the other, one of said members having a greater superficial area than the other, an inclosing casing for each of said members, means to simultaneously adjust said casings toward and from one another, together with pipes to conduct the pulp into and out of said casings, and means to permit endwise play of said shaft in its bearings within narrow limits.

8. An engine of the type described for refining pulp comprising a shaft, two conical members fixed thereon with their apices in contiguous relation one to the other, an inclosing casing for each of said members, a single adjusting means engaging each casing to simultaneously move said casings toward and from one another, means to permit limited endwise play of said shaft in its bearings, together with a supply-pipe leading into the intake end of one casing, and a pipe extending from the outlet end of said casing to the intake end of the second casing, and a suitable outlet pipe from the latter.

4. An engine of the type described for refining pulp comprising a shaft, two conical members fixed thereon with their apices in contiguous relation one to the other, one of said membershaving a greater superficial area than the other, an inclosing casing for each of said members, adjusting means to move said casings toward and from one another, means to permit limited endwise play of said shaft in its bearings, together with a supply pipe leading into the intake end of one casing, a pipe extending from the outlet end of said casing to the intake end of the second casing, and a suitable outlet pipe from the latter.

5. In a double pulp-refining engine, the

combination, of two slidably mounted casings of different size, a grinding member in each casing of different area, a shaft mounted for free endwise movement, to which the grinding members are secured, means to connect the casings together for simultaneous movement toward and from each other to vary the radial distance of the grinding members from the interior surface of the casings, a pipe to supply the pulp, to be ground, to the interior of the larger casing, a pipe to conduct the pulp after the first grinding operation in the larger casing to the smaller casing, and a delivery pipe therefrom, whereby, by reason of the differences in area of said grinding-members when the pulp is supplied to the casings, the grinding members and said shaft will automatically move in the direction of the axis of said shaft a distance proportionate to the difierence in area of said grinding members, and whereby the pulp in the' larger casing will receive less harsh treatment than in the smaller casing.

6. In a double refining paper pul engine, the combination, of a common sha t mounted for free endwise movement, bearings in which the shaft is mounted, two conicalshaped grinding members of different areas secured to said shaft, slidable standards, casings secured to the standards and inclosing the grinding members, a shaft provided with right and left hand threads to enter threaded openings in the standards to cause the casings to move toward and from each other to vary the distance of the casings from the grinding members, means to supply the pulp to be ground, to the larger casing, a pipe leading from this casing to the other casing, and a discharge pipe from the latter,- whereby the difference in area of the two grinding members and the means to adjust the casings as described, the pulp will be subjected to a double refining process and the grinding members will be automatically positioned, as described.

EDWARD P. BUTTS.

Witnesses MINNIE A. HUNTER, WM. H. CHAPIN. 

